I believe Coruba is absolutely correct and i support his point of view. Why would you give out your number over the internet to people you don't really know, you can't really trust them. It's like getting an email from Nigerian royalty asking for bank account details, you just can't believe or trust everything on the internet, This people who are pranking you are probably just using their resources to improve their game play. So mobile phones can be used for defensive purposes, it's about time they are for offensive purposes.

You should be smart enough to not give out personal details like your mobile number to people you can't rely on to be trustworthy and you have been dumb enough to give it to 20, not to mention the 20 people for every round you have played.

I am sorry guys but I have to seriously disagree with 99% of the posters on this post.

If you guys want to be contactable and give out your phone numbers in order for your team members to contact you so you can survive an attack which is the positive side to contactability then you should also live with the fact that you gave your number out willingly and therefore should accept the fact that there are players out there and assuming you are not in the same alliance again that will use that number against you. Sorry but you guys have only got yourself to blame.

The simple fact is:

If you don't want to get woken up at night - don't give your phone number out.

Cheers

Coruba

And on a personal note I would not ever knowingly phone people during their night time - I hate doing it when they are online to begin with.

1: Giving your phone-number out over the internet can lead to troublesome situations where real life is disturbed by "internet idiots". In the same way you wouldn't give your address out, I would never advise giving your phone-number out to anybody on the internet - certainly not on a "public list/post" where anyone that joins the alliance can see it - perhaps a "private list" only visible to officers of the alliance (using the "security level" feature of politics) would be the safest bet if you absolutely must publicise your phone number in the game (something I discourage). Then if somebody needs to get you online, you can rely on trusted members of the alliance. If you want any and everyone including brand new members to the ally to see all your personal real life info, then don't be suprised when something bad happens.

2: International laws make the whole thing tricky - with minor things. I can only speak for my limited knowledge of UK laws and police, but HARASSMENT is a crime. Something can only be considered harassment if something happens, you ask/tell the person to stop, and they continue. There has to be at least three seperate incidents (this doesn't mean 3 phonecalls in a single hour, it would mean three nights running being disturbed by someone) for it to count as harassment. That's not all quite accurate, but it's something along those lines. If this happens, you shouldn't go to the police, you should go to the phone company, who can help you with dealing with abuse appropriately. It's not something you phone 999 (or 911) for, before anyone tries.

3: If I catch any members of the community abusing other members in such a way that they are harassing them "in real life" - ie phoning/texting/pranking - I will come down on you hard. Lockouts for several days as an initial warning for minor offences, but for somebody that I catch entering an alliance, stealing a list of phone numbers, and passing them around to other people on the internet (be they members of Bushtarion or not), you can face a tasty loss of account on IRC, forums, and the game. Don't be an immoral, idiotic, childish, immature d***. Have some respect for the real life people playing the game, and grow up. You're worse than the chavs that hang around on street corners. You're a GEEK chav. The internet version of a chav. You have as much cool in you as Dwayne Dibley (see below/see Red Dwarf)

and this:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Azzer

I think this thread has run it's course. It's now a mix of sensible people trying to calm others down and put things in to perspective, and slightly over-zealous people that feel the world has come to an end.

There's still some investigation ongoing in to whether anyone else needs dealing with. Those that got temporary locks were all involved directly in some way in the whole messy affair - either caught passing numbers around, or admitting to pranking, etc. - nobody locked was somebody that had nothing to do with it.

If anyone is being harassed on their phone and it's by a number you don't recognise or a withheld number, I am not the authority to deal with that - I don't know every player's phone-number to identify a player from their phone-number, I don't have the capacity to tell you what number is phoning you when it's a with-held number, and I can't go to somebody's house and arrest them for pranking your phone once. Such issues are for you and your phone-network to deal with. What I can deal with is players utilising the Bushtarion mediums to encourage, aid, or commit illegal or immoral acts etc. - and I will deal with people in a way in which I deem appropriate to the situation, the circumstances surrounding it, and how that person approached (or didn't approach) me and whether they seem sorry about it etc. etc.

I don't want to see public accusations between groups of players here on the forums - this isn't a school playground, most of you are adults and should be able to deal with the general day to day of life in a world not full of friendly fluffy monks in a practical and appropriate manner.